There is no Beatriz Amma lawsuit. The California fitness influencer, who contracted a rare drug-resistant infection after more than 100 injections at a Los Angeles-area med spa in April 2021, has been unable to sue because the spa carried no insurance and, according to her attorneys, had been operating with falsified business licenses, certificates, and insurance documentation. After roughly a year of investigation, her lawyers dropped the case.
The Injections and the Infection
Amma was 23 when she visited a med spa located inside a Salon Republic facility. She paid $800 for a cocktail of vitamin B12, vitamin C, and deoxycholic acid, the fat-dissolving compound sold under the brand name Kybella. The provider injected her more than 100 times across her arms, stomach, and lower back. She found the spa through Instagram and had been invited as a collaboration, vlogging the visit in exchange for credits.
Within days, welts and painful lesions appeared at the injection sites. Fever, chills, brain fog, and nodules of inflamed tissue followed. Doctors diagnosed an infection caused by Mycobacterium abscessus, an aggressive, drug-resistant bacterium found in water, soil, and dust. Physicians believe the vials used during her procedure were contaminated. She was hospitalized for more than three months, has undergone multiple surgeries to remove infected tissue, and has been told her scarring is permanent. Her medical debt has exceeded $2 million.
Why No Attorney Would Take the Case
Amma has said attorneys declined her case because there was no way to collect on a judgment. The spa carried no insurance. According to her GoFundMe page, her legal team spent about a year investigating before concluding that the business had been operating on falsified paperwork, including its licenses, certificates, and insurance documents. Without a solvent, legitimate defendant to pursue, the lawyers walked away.
That is the practical barrier in a case like this. A civil claim needs a party that can actually pay. When a med spa has no policy behind it and its corporate identity turns out to be built on forged documents, a judgment is a piece of paper.
What Regulators Did
The Los Angeles County Public Health Department investigated the spa and reported the results as “inconclusive.” Amma has said publicly that the business remained open and faced no consequences. No regulatory or criminal charges against the spa or its operators have been publicly reported.
The Regulatory Gap Behind the Case
California has no laws or regulations written specifically for medical spas. The Medical Board of California treats med spas as “marketing vehicles for medical procedures” rather than as a distinct category of business, requires that they be owned by physicians, and limits injections to physicians, registered nurses, or physician assistants under physician supervision. Cosmetologists are prohibited from injecting the skin.
Enforcement is uneven. The Medical Board has warned that some spas operate illegally with “paper-only” supervisors and unlicensed staff, and that counterfeit or toxic substances used in these settings have caused critical illness, disfigurement, and death. There is no federal oversight of med spas and no requirement to report adverse events, so the scale of the harm is unknown. No California legislation specifically prompted by Amma’s case has been identified.
What She Has Done Instead
Beginning in 2022, Amma has used TikTok to document her diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, and she appeared on “The Checkup with Doctor Mike,” the podcast hosted by physician Mikhail Varshavski, where she called for “proper regulation in the Wild West of the cosmetic industry.” With litigation foreclosed, advocacy is the remedy she has left.